Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Hello Everyone! I promised you all that I would do a more fun look soon and this one is a little more dramatic. Since these colors are brighter, I thought it would be a good way to show you girls with flatter eyelids where to shade eyeshadow. It can be tricky and daunting at first because there are no obvious guidelines but it's really not that difficult. We even have an advantage over some people because our eyes have more of a canvas to work on! The thing to note is that our bones are similar underneath and that will help us find where to apply certain shades.

Step 2: Apply your "highlight" color. I used lime juice, but I typically use a light, neutral color that coordinates with my mid-tone color such as MAC Shroom, NYX Opal, or NYX Vanilla Sky. Apply this under your brow bone. You should be able to feel this bone with your fingertips.

Here's what this step looks like without guidelines.

Step 3: Apply contour/outer-v/crease color. This is often a darker shade of the mid-tone color but it can also be a totally different color such as with Charcoal in this case. Typically, you will want this color to be the darkest eyeshadow color you use because it is mimicking the shadow and depth of your eye socket. If you take a shadow brush under your brow bone, you should be able to feel where your eye socket is, which is where the color should go. Apply this color to the lower eyelid and in the outer-v, blending the color into the eyelid.

This is how it should look.

Step 4: Apply eyeliner to upper and lower lashline. Here I used MAC fluidline for my upper lids and an NYX pencil liner in Moss 3/4 in from the outer corner of my lower lashline. I also added a bit of Wildfire on top of Moss to make the pencil liner last longer. You can also add a highlight color to your tearducts. Then, curl lashes and add mascara. (Yikes! Sorry my eyes are so red!)

Here's the finished look.

I decided to pose with another TJ Maxx find: Lancome Juicy Tubes in Guava Enchantment. It's a lovely sheer coral, perfect for balancing a strong eye look like this one. (Tip: Remember, a strong eye = neutral or natural lip while a strong lip = a more neutral or natural eye.) And look how pretty the packaging is! I'm a sucker for nice packaging. :)

Hope this tutorial made sense and was helpful. The shading guides can be used with any colors from dramatic to very natural and, of course, this is simply my basic technique. You can always use more colors and even I switch up my shading technique sometimes. For me at least, this does seem to be pretty foolproof especially when experimenting with new color combos. Try it out and let me know how it goes.

CM: I am currently working as a graphic designer and graduated with a degree in industrial design, which is product design.

Anonymous: I do get tired of eyelid tape sometimes! I actually rarely wear it on weekends and days I don't leave the house. I like the look of the fold because it lifts the lashline so that my makeup doesn't smudge and I also don't get as many lashes fall into my eyes. I can be more creative with makeup with a disposable fold. I have never seriously considered surgery for myself, but I am not against people getting it. And thank you. :)

This is kind of off-topic, but I just started using eyelid tape. At the end of the day, I have pretty oily skin and the tape always falls off. Do you have any tips for making them stay on for longer? Do you use primer before you put on the tape?

Jennifer: I always wipe my eyelids with a cotton ball before I apply the tape. You want to make sure there isn't any makeup or lotion on your eyes before you apply. This should help if you aren't doing this already!

Cindy: I do absolutely use primer on top of the tape. It helps the shadow to stick. I don't find my eyelids getting droopy with tape. It did a bit with glue, but I don't use glue anymore.

Jess: I do think tapes work on heavier lids (unlike glue). Generally, you don't feel the tapes at all. Once in a while it may hurt if the side of it is rubbing your eyelid the wrong way, but this doesn't happen often. :)